"Erkin Love"
"Erkin Love"
Erkin Osmanli (born 18 February, 1989, Baku, Azerbaijan), known by his stage name Erkin Love, is a singer-songwriter, poet, lyricist, and writer. He started his singing career at the age of 17 in 2006, when he was chosen as one of the 13 finalists to compete in «Academy» music show, aired on Lider TV in Azerbaijan. Though initially considered an outsider, due to his passion to rock music, which was not popular in Azerbaijan, eventually he finished 5th, leaving the project one week prior to the finals, as a result of conflict with national artist Brilliant Dadashova, whom the show was managed by. Nonetheless, despite being the youngest contestant, representing underground music genre, and being left alone by her famous mentor Elnare, he managed to be the most popular contestant, and quickly became the talk of the town.
After leaving the project, Erkin Love suffered from post-show depression, escalated by cancellation of his promised record deal with SS Production. Later in 2007 he managed to become one of the 5 candidates to represent Azerbaijan in 2008 Eurovision Song Contest for the very first time. However, by early 2008 he decided to withdraw from the contest. In 2011 Erkin Love once again participated in Eurovision Song Contest National Finals, only to be knocked out at the group stage by the eventual winner Sabina Babayeva. His final attempt to represent Azerbaijan on ESC ended on 3 March, 2014, when he lost the battle to Dilara Kazimova and finished 3rd.
In 2012 Erkin Love had a joint gig with singer-songwriter Safael at Baku Jazz Centre, performing his original songs for the first time in public. In 2015 he released his first EP called «Love Demonstration», which is a compilation of his demos recorded between 2010-2014. The digital EP was made available exclusively on bandcamp.
